The trip to 1842 isan't bad - only takes about an hour each way. The problem is I keep hitting Christmas....and that gets a little wearing after a while - too much Christmas leads to grinchitis or in severe cases Scroogeosis

it is a little known fact (though we are doing our best to promote it) that the *Entire* idea for Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' was derived from events occuring during Charles dicken's visit to Upstate NY during 1842. Specifically when he visited Skaneateles. And the idea of the Christmas Spirits? They were originally named "Christmas Gin", "Christmas Grog" and "Smoking Bishop".

I am looking forward to the party at the Hollywell house, Clara can certainly throw a party. and she always invites everyone - even the Cratchits!

Ebenezeer Scrooge, when he was at University, met the true love of his life at the Mermaid and Squid Public House. Her name was Florence Trueheart, and they were seem everywhere together. A poem was written about them....

Flo was fond of Ebenezeer, "Eb" for short she called her beau. Talk of the Tides of Love, Great Caesar! You should have seen them, Eb and Flo.

The cat's moving in slow motion today. I tried to offer you a greeting earlier this afternoon, MOM, but I couldn't wait for the browser to load and had to turn it off, hoping it had launched itself. I sea(!) it hadn't. I hope you don't get sea sick with all of the pitching and tipping going on in the server!

The first part of a solution is recognizing there is a problem. Won't you come to a P.A. meeting? There will be folks just like you there, getting it said. Acknowledging issues and surrendering to a Higher Author. You never know, it might work. C'mooon.

Dark energy, the enigmatic force that is causing the universe to expand, has been present and constant for at least 9 billion years, a finding that eliminates many of the theories developed to explain its mysterious role in the cosmos, astronomers said Thursday.

The finding provides further support for, but does not prove, Albert Einstein's idea that a repulsive form of gravity exists in space.

That theory, called the cosmological constant, was developed by Einstein to explain the balance between the expansion of the universe and the powerful gravitational pull of stars and other matter.

He eventually abandoned it, calling it the "biggest blunder" of his career, and the theory lay dormant until the discovery of dark energy in the late 1990s.

The finding that dark energy was present in the early stages of the universe "is a significant clue in the quest to understand what is probably one of the most, if not the most, pressing problems in physics," said astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University, who led the team making the announcement.

The research, which will be published in the February issue of Astrophysical Journal, is the latest in a series of discoveries that have "opened up a completely new realm of understanding about how gravity works," said theoretical astronomer Sean Carroll of Caltech, who was not involved in the research.

Dark energy is analogous to dark matter; scientists have extreme difficulty seeing and measuring them directly, inferring their presence primarily by their effects on visible matter. Dark energy accounts for about 70% of the energy in the universe, scientists believe.

In the interests of Better BS, I offer the thought that "as above, so below" -- the possibility that it is also true that 70% of the thought in the universe is "dark thought", whose characteristics include a tendency to repel prepared minds, and a sort of non-analytical, automatic stimulus response character which places it in opposition to the effort of "clear" thought to disentangle, differentiate and understand. "Dark thought" tends to compress, and be inappropriate to the moment, and collapse thigns together that are in fact different.

Some threads are rich in dark thought -- for example where anonymous posters voice antagonistic or harmful sentiments.

No, I did not. If there is any substance to the story (which seems unlikely) I am sure it will be all over the place in no time, as it forces a re-evaluation of the base definition of species. Felix and Canis just don't have the DNA to reproduce together, as far as I know. Sounds like a Photoshop experiment disguised as a Kodak moment.

Now o'er one half the world nature seems dead And wicked dreams abuse the troubled sleep. Witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate's offering And the wither'd murderer, Alarmed by his sentinel the wolf Who's howl's his watch Towards his design moves like a ghost. Oh, thou sure and firm-set Earth Hear not my steps, which way they wend For fear the very stones prate of my whereabouts. (A bell rings.) I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. (Exit stage right, doing a soft-shoe)

Drome? Isn't that that town in Alaska with Geothermally heated soil, so they can grow record breaking root vegetables. What use a rutabaga the size of a small car ( or in European terms, an adult elephant), is I don't know....

Feller out on the Snake River Plain planted turnips (swedes to you Ukers) and by August some of 'em were bigger'n a blimp. He made out like a bandit hitting a gold-carrying stage without a guard! Sold two of 'em to the airport, where they hollowed 'em out for hangars; used a couple more hollowed out ones on the ranch as a new barn and potato barn, and sold all the small ones to the local real estate developers to be used for houses.

Well, I land at the airport and go to the HoJo motel. My brother and his oldest will probably be there already. That's on the 30th. On December 1 I go to see my nephew gradiate from the US Moron Corps...er, Marine Corps. Then we go back to the motel and on the 2d everybody pretty much goes home.

Well last time it was a Saturday, starting sometime in the late afternoon, and the weapon of choice was a case or three of something the legion had distilled in an old radiator. A couple of the guys hanging around the hovel minus their eybrows were very adamant about not going anywhere near the fire with it.

I get a bit hazy what happened past about 3 am the next morning, and had just about recovered by tuesday...

I need to paint the top of my house one of these days--the colors are horrible, but they were recent when I moved in so I didn't do that first. The rest of the house is brick and stone. I painted the inside of my attic silver last summer--it seems to help with heat radiating into the house, and it should help keep the inside heat in when it gets cold out.

Welcome to November 19, Ma. Have a cuppa. It's Jamaica Blue Mountain, which I picked, roasted, and burr-ground myself just for you. The cream is from that small herd over near Camp, County Kerry, and that's Demarara sugar, of course. Of course, I used water from small spring outside Burton, Illinois -- the one where all the watercress grows, you'll remember -- and after gently filtering it through pure white sand I used ultraviolet light to kill any possible germs. Oh, and I made the scones myself, grinding the flour from that hard wheat they grow over in the Arbon Valley and using the raspberries from my backyard. I baked them in the brick oven after it had been heated with well-seasoned white oak. Of course, the butter's from that same herd and I churned it myself, cooling it in the springhouse.

Hope you like it. It's just a simple little "good morning." Breakfast will be ready shortly.